Highest borrow fee stocks today
Live stock-loan rates · sortable by fee · methodology disclosed
The 25 US stocks with the highest annualized borrow fees. Source: broker-dealer stock-loan data, refreshed daily at 6:30 PM ET. Fees above 25% indicate active borrow stress; fees above 100% indicate the borrow market has effectively closed.
As of 10:50 PM ET on October 23, 2026, JZ carries the highest borrow fee in Tapeboard's market-wide ranking at 759.7% annualized. EZGO ranks second at 154.7%, followed by CETX at 36.0%.
| # | Symbol | Annualized Borrow Fee | Rebate Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | JZ | 759.7% | -755.8% |
| 2 | EZGO | 154.7% | -150.8% |
| 3 | CETX | 36% | -32.1% |
| 4 | PSKY | 29.4% | -25.5% |
| 5 | WKHS | 28.6% | -24.7% |
- JZ enters the top 5 at rank 1 (759.7197% annualized), new to the leaderboard
- CETX enters the top 5 at rank 3 (35.9819% annualized), new to the leaderboard
- PARA enters the top 5 at rank 4 (29.3793% annualized), new to the leaderboard
- WKHS enters the top 5 at rank 5 (28.565% annualized), new to the leaderboard
- PFSA drops out of the top 5 (was rank 2, 102.8% annualized)
- TOPS drops out of the top 5 (was rank 3, 88.4% annualized)
Frozen record for this date: /short-squeeze-stocks/highest-borrow-fee/2026-10-23 · full archive · Frozen daily record for 2026-10-23. Data captured at publication; diffed against the 2026-10-22 record.
Top 25 stocks by borrow fee
Desk study: We analyzed 30 days of borrow fees, 5 names never left triple digits
What is a borrow fee?
A borrow fee is the annualized cost a short seller pays to borrow shares from a broker's stock-loan inventory. Quoted as a percent per annum, it is the carry cost of holding a short position. A 1% fee means $1,000 per year on a $100,000 short. A 100% fee means the short is paying the full notional in carry every year, a level that signals the borrow market has effectively closed for that name.
Fees are set by supply and demand at each broker's stock-loan desk. When a stock has plenty of unowned shares sitting in margin accounts, fees stay below 1%, the "general collateral" or GC band. When float utilization climbs past 90% and shorts have to compete for the last available shares, fees can spike into double or triple digits within hours. The borrow desk is essentially auctioning a finite resource. Tapeboard sources fees from broker-dealer stock-loan data. Retail and prop borrow desks are only part of the market. Prime-broker rates from Goldman, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan can diverge, and large funds with long-standing relationships sometimes secure rates well below the retail print.
High borrow fee combined with high short interest and high float utilization is the structural fingerprint of a squeeze setup. Fees in the 25-50% band suggest active stress; fees above 100% suggest the borrow market has run out of supply and the next short seller has nowhere to source shares without paying punitive overnight rates. Tapeboard's full squeeze score methodology weights borrow fee at 25%, second only to short interest as a percentage of float (35%).
Borrow fee FAQ
How fresh is this data?
Borrow fee and price are live and refresh daily after market close. The short interest (SI %Float) column is on a different cadence: the short interest column is settled as of Sep 30, 2026, because FINRA publishes short interest on a settlement schedule and the figure is held between readings. There is no real-time short interest in US markets, so the SI as-of date is stamped on the SI column header rather than presented as today's value.
What does a 100% borrow fee mean?
A 100% annualized borrow fee means a short seller pays the full notional value of their position per year just to keep it open. On a $100,000 short, that is roughly $274 per day in carry. Fees this high signal the borrow market has effectively closed for that name, every available share has been lent out and the broker is rationing what is left through pricing.
Where does Tapeboard get its borrow fee data?
Tapeboard sources daily borrow fees from broker-dealer stock-loan data. The data reflects a meaningful share of retail and prop stock loan, but rates from prime brokers (Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley) and from large institutional desks can differ. It is a real number, not the only number. Tapeboard discloses the source rather than synthesize a market-wide rate it cannot see.
How often do borrow fees update?
Daily. Tapeboard's ingest runs at 6:30 PM ET each weekday after the stock-loan inventory file refreshes. Intraday spikes during the trading session are not captured, the publication cadence is end-of-day. Real-time intraday borrow rates are not publicly available; even Ortex models them rather than streaming live broker rates.
Why are most stocks under 1% borrow fee?
Roughly 95% of US-listed common stocks sit in the "general collateral" band, fees of 0.25% to 0.75% per annum. There is enough idle inventory in margin accounts that brokers can supply borrow demand at minimal cost. Only stocks with very high short interest, very tight float, recent stress events, or specific event-driven setups (deal arbitrage, bankruptcy, going-private) push into the higher fee bands.
Is a high borrow fee a buy signal?
No. A high borrow fee is a structural condition, not a directional signal. It tells you shorts are paying punitive carry, which is one of the ingredients for a squeeze, but it does not predict price direction. Many stocks with high borrow fees are high-fee precisely because they are weak fundamentally, bankrupt retailers, fraudulent microcaps, or deal-arbitrage situations where a bid has fixed the upside. Pair the fee with the full squeeze score, news catalysts, and your own thesis before drawing trading conclusions.
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